Why Corn-Based Ethanol isn't Gonna be the Solution

I've seen a lot of commercials and heard a lot of people clammering about high gas prices and growing concerns about the environment. They use those as reasons for the need of an alternative fuel, and the most common alternative fuel we hear about here in America is corn-based ethanol.

Not a lot of people know what corn-based ethanol is. It's basically just corn that you allow to ferment and then distilled to into pure grain alcohol. There are more steps in-between, but I'm not completely knowledgable on the process. I do know that while this will reduce our reliance on foreign oils, this alternative is not much better for the environment and could be bad for the economy.

Corn-based ethanol is not an efficient fuels. Statistics I found from a Seattle Times article say that because of the energy needed to plow, plant, fertilize, and harvest the corn it takes 3 gallons of ethanol to make 4 gallons of the stuff. That's 75 percent of the energy in the fuel itself, where gasoline in comparison uses only 6 percent of it's energy. The actual growing of the corn is where most of the environmental benefits are loss. Yes, biodiesel have lower carbon monoxide emissions, but most machines use to grow, harvest and then refine the corn use fossil fuels, so they sort of cancel each other out. Then the fact that you need to use pesticides and fertillizers to grow corn adds a whole nother environmental problem to this alternative.

The other problem with corn-based ethanol is the impact it would have on the corn crop. Because ethanol is so popular right now, corn prices have doubled since last year. That's bad for American consumers due to the fact nearly everything we eat contains corn. It's sad to admit, but the food industry relies heavily on corn. Just read the label of any food or drink. You'll find ingredients like corn maltodextrin, or corn starch, or high fructose corn syrup. Oh and those little animals we like to eat. Guess what they eat? Corn. That means those prices will go up, creating a new strain on the pockets of American citizens. Despite of this many people remain strong proponents of corn-based ethanol.

Many proponents point to the biodeisel program of Brazil as evidence that it can work. Brazil first started it's program over three decades ago though. Plus they use a much more efficient crop, sugarcane. Sugarcane grows well through out their entire nation, and can be harvested at high levels. The low cost of sugar combined with the fact that they use only a 24:76 ethanol to gasoline ratio makes their system much more advantageous to a corn-based plan.

While biodeisels can help the environment greatly, it is important to know that corn is not the only path to take. All alternative fuels have their pluses and minuses, so it is important to know the facts before we rush out and commit ourselves to an unworkable plan. I don't pretend to have a solution to the problem though, I just think it's better if more people we're aware.